Receipt Bank Xero Integration Guide [2026 Updated]

Connecting Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) to your Xero account is one of the quickest ways to eliminate tedious manual data entry and reclaim hours of your time. This integration automates the process of getting vendor bills, receipts, and invoices into your accounting system accurately and efficiently. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from the initial connection to refining your everyday workflow for maximum benefit.

Why Connect Dext and Xero?

On their own, both tools are powerful. Dext excels at converting paper and digital documents into structured, usable data with its advanced optical character recognition (OCR) technology. Xero is a leading cloud accounting platform that simplifies managing your financials, from bank reconciliation to reporting. When you link them, you create a seamless accounts payable workflow that saves time and reduces errors.

Here are the primary benefits of this integration:

• Eliminate Manual Data Entry: Dext captures key information like the supplier, date, amount, and invoice number. This data is then sent directly to Xero as a draft bill or expense, complete with a digital copy of the source document attached.
• Improve Data Accuracy: By removing manual keying, you minimize the risk of typos and transposition errors that can lead to incorrect financial records and reconciliation headaches.
• Maintain a Real-Time Audit Trail: Every transaction published from Dext to Xero includes a digital copy of the original receipt or invoice. This creates an irrefutable audit trail, making it simple to verify expenses and prepare for audits.
• Accelerate Month-End Close: With expenses and bills flowing into Xero daily, your financial data is always current. This significantly reduces the last-minute scramble to collect and enter documents at the end of the month.
• Streamline Bank Reconciliation: When an expense from Dext appears in Xero, it’s already coded and ready to be matched against the corresponding transaction from your bank feed, turning reconciliation into a simple one-click process.

Getting Started: What You Need Before You Integrate

Before you jump into the setup process, ensure you have the following in place. Taking a few minutes to prepare now will make the integration process much smoother.

• An Active Dext Subscription: You'll need a subscription to Dext with user permissions that allow you to manage integrations.
• An Active Xero Subscription: Your Xero account must also be active and you must have Standard or Advisor user role as an accountant or bookkeeper to authorize third-party connections.
• A Clean Chart of Accounts: Before connecting, it's a good practice to review your Chart of Accounts in Xero. Make sure it's organized and reflects the expense categories your business actually uses. This will make it easier to map Dext categories correctly.
• Up-to-Date Contact List: Similarly, having a reasonably clean contact list in Xero for your main suppliers will help Dext match documents automatically and prevent duplicate contacts from being created.

Step-by-Step: Connecting Dext (Receipt Bank) to Xero

The native integration is the most common and recommended method for connecting these two platforms. It’s built-in, secure, and easy to configure directly from your Dext account. Follow these steps to get everything connected.

Step 1: Navigate to the Connections Section in Dext

Log into your Dext Prepare account. Look for the "Connections" tab in the left-hand sidebar. If you’re managing multiple clients, you must be in the correct client account. Within this menu, select "Integrations" to see the list of available connections.

Step 2: Select Xero and Initiate the Connection

In the list of available accounting integrations, find Xero and click on it. You'll be taken to a screen that details the benefits of the connection. Click the “Connect” button to start the authorization process.

Step 3: Authorize Dext to Access Your Xero Account

You will now be redirected to the Xero login page. Enter your Xero credentials and log in. Xero will then ask you to grant Dext permission to access your organization's data. This is a secure, standard procedure for trusted third-party applications. Select the correct Xero organization if you have access to more than one, and click “Allow Access.” Once authorized, you'll automatically be returned back to the Dext dashboard to complete the configuration.

Step 4: Configure Your Integration Settings

This is the most important step for ensuring your data flows correctly. You'll need to tell Dext how to handle different types of documents and data when publishing to Xero.

• Publishing Destinations: Decide where different document types should go in Xero. For receipts and expenses, you might send them to "Purchases" to create a Spend item or to "Classic Expense Claims." For supplier invoices, the most common destination is "Purchases" to create a bill in Xero's "Bills to Pay" section.
• Map Chart of Accounts: Dext has its own set of default categories. You need to map these to your company's specific Chart of Accounts in Xero. Go through the list and match each Dext category (e.g., "Office Expenses") with the appropriate account in Xero (e.g., "429 - Office Expenses"). A good mapping is fundamental to automation.
• Set Default Tax Rates: Ensure the tax rates you use in Dext accurately reflect the tax rates set up in Xero. You can set a default tax rate for purchases, which Dext will apply unless it can extract a different rate from the document itself.
• Enable Auto-Publish: For trusted suppliers whose bills are always coded the same way, you can enable auto-publish. Once Dext extracts the data and you’ve approved the coding once, it will automatically send future invoices from that supplier to Xero without requiring you to manually click "publish." Use this feature selectively to maintain control.
• Map Payment Methods: If you use Dext to mark bills as paid, you can map your payment methods to the correct bank accounts in Xero. For example, you can link the "Company Credit Card" in Dext to the "Business Visa" bank account in Xero.

Step 5: Test the Connection

Before moving on, test the integration to make sure everything works as expected. Grab a test receipt, upload it to Dext via the mobile app or web dashboard, and let Dext process it. Once the data is extracted, review it in the Dext inbox, select the correct category code (if it hasn't already been set), and click "Publish." Then, log into Xero. You should find the transaction exactly where you intended it to go (e.g., in "Bills to Pay"), complete with the correct contact, date, amount, and a beautiful attached image of the receipt. If it’s all there, your integration is a success!

Best Practices for a Flawless Workflow

Getting connected is just the beginning. To get the most efficiency from the Dext and Xero integration, adopt these best practices into your regular workflow.

• Submit Documents Promptly: Encourage your team to submit receipts and invoices as soon as they receive them. The Dext mobile app makes this simple. A steady flow of documents prevents a backlog and keeps your accounting data up-to-date.
• Regularly Review the Dext Inbox: Set aside a few minutes each day or a couple of times a week to review and publish the items in your Dext inbox. This allows Dext's AI to learn your coding preferences and makes the automation smarter over time.
• Fine-Tune Supplier Rules: As you process documents, take advantage of Dext’s supplier rules feature. You can specify a default category, tax rate, and even project tracking for any supplier. Investing a few seconds to set a rule can save countless clicks in the future.
• Maintain Contact Hygiene in Xero: Occasionally, slight variations in supplier names (e.g., "Office Co." vs. "Office Co, Inc.") might cause Dext to create a duplicate contact in Xero. Take a moment to merge duplicates in Xero to keep your supplier list clean and accurate.

Troubleshooting Common Integration Issues

Even with a solid setup, you might occasionally encounter a hiccup. Here’s how to solve some of the most common issues:

• Problem: Items Failing to Publish to Xero. A red dot in Dext might indicate a sync error.
  • Solution: The most common causes are an expired connection token, trying to publish into a locked accounting period in Xero, or using an account code that has been archived in Xero. First, try re-integrating by disconnecting and reconnecting Xero. If that doesn't work, check your Xero date lock settings and ensure the account code you are trying to use is active.
• Problem: Duplicate Contacts Created in Xero.
  • Solution: This usually happens due to slight name differences. Simply go to the Contacts section in Xero, select the duplicates, and use the "Merge" function. To prevent it, ensure the supplier name in Dext is an exact match to the one in Xero before publishing.
• Problem: Tax Amounts are Incorrect in Xero.
  • Solution: This is often a mapping issue. Check that your default tax rates are set correctly in the Dext integration settings. Dext’s technology is good at reading tax amounts, but it’s always wise to ensure the "Autodetect Tax" setting aligns with your Xero configuration.

Final Thoughts

Connecting Dext and Xero is a straightforward process that transforms your bookkeeping from a manual chore into a highly automated and efficient system. By following the steps outlined above, you can confidently integrate these platforms and start saving valuable time while improving the accuracy of your financial records.

Just as this integration saves you time on manual data entry, having an AI research assistant can dramatically speed up the more complex parts of your work, like untangling tricky tax questions. While Dext correctly categorizes an expense, determining its specific tax treatment for planning or reporting can be time-consuming. Instead of ambiguous web searches, our tax research platform, Feather AI provides instant, citation-backed answers directly from IRS and state tax publications, allowing you to move from data capture to accurate accounting with complete confidence.